I have been concerned lately that pastors and church leaders are putting very little evangelistic energy into their Easter Services. Here are a few reasons we are hearing:

“All our key people go on vacation at that time.”

“We don't want to be an attractional church.”

“We are have staffing issues and can’t handle a big workload right now.”

“We have not had fruitful Easter outreaches in the past.”

While all of those things may be true, I believe there are important reasons to consider leveraging Easter as an opportunity for kingdom growth:

1. Leaders should leverage the cultural opportunities to proclaim the truth of Easter.

Though I believe every Sunday is a resurrection celebration, when the majority of our culture accepts Easter as a religious holiday we should leverage the opportunity to proclaim the gospel in power and clarity.

Scott McConnell, director of LifeWay Research, wrote, "Easter and Christmas are the most revered worship observances of the Christian faith. The crux of the gospel is not just that Jesus came to earth in human form, which we celebrate at Christmas, but that He lived a sinless life and was crucified in the place of mankind. God's acceptance of this payment for sin is seen in Him raising Jesus from the dead. This is what makes Easter so significant. Yet, surprisingly, many who call themselves Christian have no intention of going to Easter services." (Italics mine.)

If we pastors don't take steps to teach about the significance of these specials days both spiritually and evangelically, we are giving in to culture and are not edifying the church. Remember, good edification will lead to effective evangelism.

Why not write a personal letter to everyone on your mailing list … encouraging them on the importance of Easter? See Sample.

2. Leaders replace excuses with faith.

Excuse: “All our key people go on vacation at that time.”

Response: This is a great time to raise up new leaders. Even if many of your people go on vacation, remember you are trying to reach the people not yet in your church.

Excuse: “We don't want to be an attractional church.”

Response: Every church is attractional if it has a central gathering or building, so we will embrace it and do our best. Easter is about being attractional one Sunday of the year, not about changing your mission philosophy.

Excuse: “We are have staffing issues and don’t have the manpower.”

Response: We will always have issues and problems, but leaders do not let problems distract them from reaching their community.

There are many testimonials to the effectiveness of Easter outreach. Here are a few:

One pastor who intentionally leveraged Easter for 13 years told me he saw his attendance double every Easter Sunday, and then experienced 20 percent retention. That meant 20 percent growth from just one weekend a year.

I met with another pastor this week who said "We do everything we can to leverage Easter from focused prayer projects to 30 days for prayer and fasting. We develop personal invites, we use direct mail, we use yard signs, we send out press releases—this is the Super Bowl of Christianity."

My personal testimony is that our church grew 10 years straight because we chose to leverage Easter.

Finally, some of you are asking, is it too late? No, go for it! Start today! God is reaching your community with His great love. There is a great redemptive flow happening all around us. Will your and your church be a part of it or just sit there and watch it go by you?

Scott McConnell offers these words of encouragement: "Easter is the greatest celebration of the Christian faith. The extra excitement and higher attendance intrigues many who do not attend regularly. As one in five Americans keep their options open, Christians have no reason to be shy about asking friends to join them for an Easter service."

Gary Rohrmayer has been involved in church planting since 1987. During this time he has been involved in over 65 new church plants. He has worked in every area as an intern, pioneer planter, parent church pastor, coach, head coach, district director and national/international trainer. He has trained hundreds of church planters, pastors and missionaries throughout the U.S. and through a growing international ministry. Gary was the founding pastor of Countryside Community Church in Oconomowoc, Wis. Currently Gary is the executive minister for Converge MidAmerica. Gary, his wife Mary and their children Josh, Dan and Kallie live in Lindenhurst, IL.

People love to tell you that preaching is irrelevant in this day and age. But contrary to this kind of thinking, good preaching does remain important. In fact, preaching remains as important as it has ever been.

The Bible is wholly relevant to the modern person’s life sometimes it just takes some work for us to figure that out. The idea of making a “timeless truth” central to your sermon is important in communicating God’s Word in a postmodern age.

When a pastor stands to preach, he never knows who is listening to him. And if his sermon is recorded or broadcast, he has no clue who will be hearing his words. He will do well to make sure he knows what he’s talking about.

Something which belongs on your list is outreach to Senior Citizens. Many senior citizens can no longer drive, and are too infirm to depend on public transportation. Years ago, a church which I worked with to help enhance their Deacon's program decided to make a special outreach effort to Veterans on Veterans Day. The church went around to all of the neighboring retirement homes, and took advantage of free listings of church outreach programs by the local radio stations and newspapers. What the church told folks was that they would help arrange rides to church for any senior citizens who wished to attend their special Veterans Day services. The church received many calls and lined up volunteers who would be willing to assist the senior citizens arrange transportation from their homes - whether individual apartments or retirement homes - to the church for the service. The church had so many calls that they ended up expanding their Veterans Day observation to three days. Some church members pooled their resources and rented a special bus which could accommodate wheel chairs for the day. Church members brought in pot luck supper. Following a Bible study and prayer service, the senior citizens enjoyed the potluck supper - then received transportation back to their homes. Church leaders were astonished when they learned how many senior citizens would be happy to attend a service at church - iif they could only find economical transportation which would fit into their limited budgets. The church found that getting to know the senior citizens who had responded to their invitation to attend special Veterans Day services was an enriching experience for young and old alike. When the senior citizens outreach became a permanent part of the church's outreach program, the church began to experience steady growth. Of course, this all happened back in the 1970s - but I am sure that even modern churches who are disappointed by their growth statistics would discover that those statistics would begin to look better if they explored ways to reach out to the senior citizens in their surrounding communities.